Birthrites
‘Birthrites’ is the study of a woman giving “natural” birth. Surrounded by her family – massaging, masturbating, comforting her – she devours all the attention they offer, her ego the force which moves them all. In contrast to its subject, the film is almost serene to watch, the colours of oil paintings caressing moments of pain as well as calm. As a study which confronts an option open to women, the film presents one woman's experience as filmed by another without any insistence on simple answers.
With contraception and abortion readily available today, the consequence of childbirth is no longer automatic. Women, whose role is thus more in question, must nevertheless, I believe, confront this aspect of their potentiality. Whether or not they opt to embrace it, they must weigh up what childbirth is. As a woman of 25, it became an issue I felt it important to deal with. The result of this involvement is the film.
– Robina Rose
The tension created between the subject matter and form throws open questions (perhaps unintentionally) which go to the very heart of the earth-mother role.
– Helen MacKintosh, City Limits
Description source: Circles Catalogue (circa 1983). Compiled by Helen MacKintosh and Margaret Gillan. Edited by Felicity Sparrow.
